Veterans look for answers for questions on benefits
Posted on Sunday, November 11, 2007
On one side, there’s the veterans. On the other, the agency that serves them.
The challenge is getting the two to meet.
When U. S. military veterans return home for the battlefields in Afghanistan and Iraq, they have in hand a DD-214, the official military discharge form. The Veterans Administration sits on U. S. soil, offering numerous programs to serve those who have served the country.
Somewhere in the middle is a calvary of confused and uninformed servicemen and women when it comes to health insurance and other benefits.
The main kink can be found in the outprocessing from the various military branches, according to several area veterans.
“ We don’t really have access to them when they outprocess, ” said Luanna Oxford, who works as a medical administrations specialist and primary care supervisor at the VA Medical Center in Fayetteville. Oxford added that the earliest the VA is able to have contact with veterans is during their 90-day postdeployment debriefing.
Despite this hurdle, Oxford and several other staff members at the Fayetteville VA have been trying various forms of outreach, including taking part in the Welcome Home Salute event on Oct. 21 at the Walton Arts Center.
Jon Moores, a Springdale resident who is on inactive reserve in the Air Force after serving a six-year commitment, said that he was only given a couple of Web sites concerning issues on health insurance and other benefits.
“ They basically say, ‘ Good luck. Good luck finding out what your benefits really are, ’” Moores said. “ It’s sort of like a treasure hunt. ”
Moores was one of many veterans who showed up at the Welcome Home Salute event, where several information booths offered returning soldiers valuable resources for their transition back into the normalcy of life away from the combat zone.
Dax Carpenter, an ex-Marine from Centerton, spent time at each one of the booths, picking up a diverse collection of pamphlets in the process.
“ I try to help every veteran I run into in one way or another, ” Carpenter said. “ Nobody knows who to contact, who to go see. It’s bad because people don’t know what to do and they’re not being told what to do. I’m here to make sure I get the paperwork for them and get it to them because most people didn’t know about this today. ”
“ We try to take care of our own. That’s no offense to the civilian sector, but the civilian sector will never understand because we’ve had a crash course on life that civilians will never have and never want. ”
Carpenter has proposed a solution of having an exit interview upon leaving the military in which a board of doctors evaluates the soldier both physically and mentally. The board would then send all the necessary paperwork to the nearest VA along with the veteran’s contact information.
As the veterans service officer of Washington County, Wayne Haines knows all about that paperwork. It is his job to know what benefits veterans have or do not have, based on major factors such as whether they meet certain income requirements or have a service connected claim from an ailment suffered as a result of combat.
“ So many veterans are afraid of paperwork and that’s why I’m here, and I know I’m not getting out to the whole community, ” Haines said.
All 75 counties in Arkansas have a veterans service officer. Haines’ Benton County counterpart, Don Olson, works in downtown Rogers. Haines, whose office is inside the Washington County Courthouse building, added that all returning veterans should “ see me first” before going over and enrolling at the VA.
Oxford said that it is imperative for all veterans to enroll at the VA to get in the system — regardless of their situation.
“ We have a lot of benefits for them that they’re not aware of, ” Oxford said, “ and we encourage them to come down and just to talk to us. ”
“ We want [veterans ] to understand and recognize the possible problems that are associated from returning home from the war zone, ” added Lana Brown, a clinical social worker at the VA in Fayetteville who screens and works with veterans with such maladies as post-traumatic stress disorder and mild cases of traumatic brain injuries. “ We also want them to know about the resources that are available to them.
“ There’s help. They don’t need to try to deal with this on their own if they’re having some symptoms. People here really do care. ”
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